Germany: Lower Saxony holds state election amid energy crisis

German voters in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony are casting their ballots on Sunday in a regional election amid an acute energy crisis and a looming recession.

The most recent polls have Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) slightly ahead at 31-32% of the vote. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of former chancellor Angela Merkel, is polling at 27-28%.

With Germans’ soaring energy bills dominating the race over local issues…